Entering a Borough Park public school early Tuesday, David Tilis was emphatic about his pick for president.

“I’m Jewish, so it has to be [George W.] Bush,” said Tilis, 21, a mortgage broker en route to casting his vote for the Republican incumbent. “I don’t understand how any Jew could vote for [Sen. John] Kerry. Yasir Arafat is for him.”

Jerusalem — Before the final press event of Condoleezza Rice’s latest four-day visit in the Middle East, stride piano blues piped into the room perked up a news conference hall half-full with journalists yawning at the early hour and the U.S.’s latest attempt at high profile Arab-Israeli diplomacy. Call it the shuttling secretary stomp.

Rash of recent prosecutions may leave community open to political backlash.

02/24/2010 - 19:00

Adam Dickter

Assistant Managing Editor

In the wake of recent scandals involving local Orthodox Jews, some sociologists think there could soon be a backlash against the political power of what has long been one of the most sought-after voting blocs.

“Situations like this have a cumulative effect,” said William Helmreich, a professor of sociology at City College and director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Queens College.

In a ceremony attended by leaders of Houston's Jewish community and other prominent Texans, three Holocaust survivors lit candles last week to mark the arrival of a World War II-era railcar at the Holocaust Museum Houston. Each candle represented one million of the three million Jews packed into freight cars during the Holocaust and sent to their deaths by rail, a museum spokesman says.

Then it comes to ZIP codes, 90210 (Beverly Hills) and 02138 (Cambridge, Mass.) have nothing on New York’s 10013, otherwise known as Tribeca. The Triangle Below Canal Street, where luxurious lofts line the charming cobblestone streets, has become a residential boomtown, running from the Hudson River to Broadway, and bordered on the north by Canal Street and on the south by Vesey Street.

Where's Joe? That's the question some American Jews are asking about Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman as the crisis in Israel sinks to its worst levels in decades. Some are concerned that the Connecticut senator (the first Jew in history to run on a major presidential ticket) has not been more out front in defending Israel in the face of increasing criticism from the United Nations and Arab countries over the violence. More than a hundred Palestinians and eight Jews have been killed since the conflict broke out this month.

Vice President Al Gore, making his first campaign trip to Brooklyn's Orthodox community, found himself at odds with supporters on several key issues: including private school vouchers and freedom for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.
Gore said Pollard should be granted clemency by the president only if the Justice Department recommends it.
It apparently was the first time Gore has addressed the issue as he raises campaign funds for his 2000 Democratic presidential nomination bid.